{ beach babes. }

I've always had a thing for matching photos. You know what I mean, photos that will look similar when you frame them.

You may remember the following photo of Kinz?

I {adore} this picture. It was taken on vacation and just takes me right back to the that week. My little sun kissed carefree beach babe.



The following day I made Kenna go to the beach to try and get a look alike photo.

{...Speaking of carefree...}



I couldn't get her to quit sifting the sand through her little fingers.

Finally I get her to lay down and smile and within seconds of taking this picture a great big black lab stood right next to her and shook all over, soaking her completely.



I did tell her I felt bad however it was so worth it to get a matching photo of my other beach babe.

Although I seriously am running out of wall space.

{ Little Miss Haley. }

My brother's wife contacted me a few weeks ago wanting to have pictures taken of her niece. I had never had the chance to meet this cutie but knew she was going to be an easy subject based on the curls. {My own curly hair daughter rocks a photo shoot!}

Little Miss Haley was a tad apprehensive at first.





She didn't want to leave her mom and dad.

Once she fell in the grass and got her chubby little hand wet, I scooped her up and we were fast friends.



The smiles just started pouring out of her.



I put her in this basket with some toys to contain her while I snapped a few of her mom and dad and it turned so to be a great photo op.





For the last few pictures I gave her a little treat. Her very first sucker ever!



She thought she was something else with that lollipop...



Thanks Jen and Mike {and Josh and Christy} for a fun morning with this little cutie pie!

{ a bend in the road II.}

If you follow me on twitter {or facebook} you know our family did make it home from vacation last Saturday. We had a uneventful ride home {even stopped at my favorite outlet mall and picked up a new backpack for Sis.}

It was another amazing vacation, spending time with family and friends, old and new. We spent lots of time in the lake, on the beach, in the boat. We were in Canada for July 1st, {their July 4th} and got to watch fireworks over the lake. I was introduced to "Pudgie Pies," {which will be on the blog soon!} read a couple great books, ate tons of sunflower seeds, played board games, grilled out, cleaned sand out of our cabin every.single.day, caught a few fish, got eaten alive by black flies, took naps out in the boat, and enjoyed my husband and girls.

We are so incredibly lucky to have to opportunity to go every year.

Because very seldom can I be found without my camera around my neck, I of course took pictures. However this year I made it a point to try and live in the moment. I want so badly to document all the memories that sometimes I feel like I go through our entire vacation seeing everything through a lens.

So while I didn't take quite as many photos as I usually do, I did still schedule a photo shoot. {grin!}

You may remember these photos from last year? {Mom, click that last sentence to see them!!! =) } I adore this location and it's my plan to take pictures of the girls here each year.



Before the photo shoot I asked Tim to carry out the chair that was in our cabin. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "It's ugly." {grin!!}

Really it was ugly but I knew it would photograph well...







and it did....







and it surely doesn't hurt that I have two of the cutest most photogenic girls ever!







Don't be fooled by those sweet smiles...these girlies can have a sour side too...



It doesn't last for long though, these two can't NOT smile for long!





Which makes their momma smile too!



As always, feel free to join my Photography facebook page to see the entire photo shoot. {because yes I took more!}